All posts tagged: american

The Beastro | new american in hongdae

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The Beastro is a well known and well hearted American bistro in Hongdae. It’s basically the Target of Western dining in Korea, everyone can take away something pretty good from it. My foodie pal Phil and I headed over there one gloriously awesome autumn day to have breakfast, cocktails and to overhear conversations in English. After living in Korea for some time, I really have begun to hate listening to stranger’s banter that I actually understand. I think I really always hated it, even back in America. Why is there something so irritating about listening to people talk about things that are not remotely about you. I’m sure I’m not alone here. Being in a restaurant and not understanding anything, living in a beautiful bubble of dumbness, there is something otherworldly about it. It’s one of the reasons I love Korea. Bubbles. My ridiculous sensitivities aside, the meal was very on the mark. I was excited before even going after reading the menu online and seeing a mushroom tart. MUSHROOM. TART. Did they know I was coming? They …

Made | A Review

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Just a little jaunt down the road from John Cook Deli Meats, in Apgujeong, sits MADE (backwards d). From the outside, it looks like a run of the mill, albeit cool and modern, cafe. But, inside is a new American restaurant who is doing some good things with good food. In the evening, it boasts a pretty good little Italian American menu with lots of meatballs, pasta and some baked ziti which smelled just like St. Louis. You can pick and choose from the menu giving you a “made to order” type of meal. In the evening, MADE also has a few choice options from its brunch menu like Avocado Eggs Benedict, which I devoured on my first stop. They are pretty amazing, if not a bit too rich, but it went down the gullet anyway. So in my second trip to MADE, I wanted to enjoy the full brunch menu they have on the weekends. I saw a post on the Fat Girl’s Food Guide to Eating in Korea , to my utter delight, that they had real American-style …

Hopscotch: the gastropub | A Review

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This is my new favorite place, everybody. Practically hidden in an alley in Nonhyeon-dong (my neighborhood!) there sits this fantastic restaurant and bar. One of the best parts of Hopscotch is that it is not in Itaewon. Not that there is anything wrong with Itaewon, but this place feels undiscovered although its been around since 2013. It’s otherworldly inside, meaning, you won’t feel like you’re in Seoul anymore. The best part, however, is the no hold’s barred, up the ante, soul food.  I was happily indulged with everything we ordered and ate until my gut felt angry and suicidal. There’s a big menu of food and drinks. (I only have a few pictures of the menu below.) You can eat big or just get something for drinking; either way, you’re going to be in for a treat. The prices for food are high but completely worth every won. They have craft beers to choose from, cocktails and a full bar. They have what looks like the full collection from The Hand & Malt, a small micro brewery out of Gyeongi-do, …

Double Trouble | Revisited

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Ahh, Double Trouble. How I have missed you. (See first review here 🙂 ) This is only the second visit to DT because, well, just look at this food. It’s not exactly heart healthy. So I save it for those very special occasions when I need a fat and sugar fix. Like the same day I sign up for a six month gym membership. Yep. That’s what happened. I signed up for the gym on the same day I headed back to the basement eatery to try all new things covered in cheese. I’m going to just remind you again that this is not a full on western style place. It is definitely fusion, but its fusion in the best possible sense. On purpose. They don’t pretend to be true American cuisine then ruin it by being made more for Korean tastes. It’s all out in the open and honest. I love that about this place. Now onto the food…

Pier 17 | A Review

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  Just a bit of a disclaimer: From what I can remember of Cajun food, this place delivered. It’s been a while for me, even back in America I didn’t often eat Jambalaya or have seafood boils. It’s not a huge thing in Missouri. However, as a persnickety food person, this place was everything I hoped it to be. I’ve been wanting to visit Pier 17 for over a year. I read a review and could never find anyone to go with me or had, for some reason, always chosen to go elsewhere instead. I made up my mind that before summer blissfully packed it’s bags on the way out the door I would visit this American soul food restaurant. The awesome: The menu had the things I wanted to see. Poboys. Jambalaya. Gumbo. Seafood. I would have been happy if the menu just had those things. When I walked in the place smelled of Old Bay seasoning. That was what I think I first noticed. It just smelled right. There were many napkins to go around. …

Brooklyn: the burger joint |A Review|

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I am probably 1 1/2 years late in reviewing this place. This is the cat’s pajamas. The bees knees. The whatever of foodie meccas in Seoul. Errrrbody loves Brooklyn. There are hundreds thousands millions of reviews online (big ones, small ones, itsy bitsy blurbs) about the holy grail of burgers in the world of kimchi. But, this was my first ever visit so the world is getting one more review. 😀

|Review| Brick Oven New York Pizza

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Oh, Korea and your weirdo pizzas. You cause all us foreigners to seek out establishments like Brick Oven with a vengeance. I’ve been to this restaurant twice and it is always loaded with foreigners and gyopos.  They even have western staff working there…that’s how much we love it. This review of Brick Oven is one of hundreds online so I’ll be brief. This is good pizza. There is a beautiful brick oven in the kitchen and you can smell the pizza from the street. It calls you in like a siren…and if I was going to fall for any siren, it would be the Siren of Good Pizza. Directions: Click Here! 617-4 Yeoksam-dong Gangnam-gu, Seoul, South Korea +82 2-508-1325  

|Review| Double Trouble

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In the back alley of the most annoying of all the Gangnam Streets, is a basement restaurant that I heard through the viral grapevine had a fairly accurate representation of a Philadelphia Cheese Steak. I was game. It’s been YEARS since I’ve had a cheesesteak. I lived in Philly for a bit in a previous life and had the fortune to try the sandwich on it’s home turf. When done correctly, it’s a sandwich that melts in your mouth with warmth, salt and cheese. The bread should be warm. The meat should be salty. The cheese should be cheesy.  It’s a real work of art when done right. I’m really happy with this place for one main reason. They don’t pretend to be ultra authentic. It’s obviously a Western/Korean fusion restaurant. They have ddeok and cheese as a dish. The corn on the cob was coated in mayo. The Philly Cheese Steak is actually called a Seoul Cheese Steak. The honesty doesn’t go unnoticed. There’s nothing worse than advertising some authentic place and then biting …

|Revisiting| John Cook’s Deli Meats

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  Oh, how I love this place! I really intended to go and try something other than a sandwich but it’s a warm, summer day and a sandwich just sounded so perfect. I must go back to try the damn bbq…and I will…but at a later date. Today I decided to have a chicken + avocado sandwich on ciabatta bread. It was divine. The bread itself was so soft and had a perfect chewiness. The chicken was chicken breast, not processed, and the avocado was as perfect as that fruit can be. The sweet staff brought two “service” items. For those of you not in Korea, service items are freebies that Koreans love to give and Koreans and Westerners alike love to get. We got a little toast with German style meatloaf and a roasted pepper and sausage salad. Fantastic. And I just want to throw out there that they make their own pickles. So they are tangy and crisp…like they should be. There isn’t a sweetness in sight. Plus, they sell them in big …